Various methods and devices for making and handling battery grids and plates have been previously developed. Battery grids have sometimes been cast as a continuous web, which after casting are pasted and then severed into successive individual plates. Suitable continuous casting, pasting and cutting processes and devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,349,067; 4,606,383; and 4,583,437 and 4,543,863.
The art has developed to the point where battery grids can be cast in a continuous web, pasted and cut at a rate as high as 200 lineal feet per minute. Since each individual battery grid typically has a length along the web in the range of 4 inches to 6 inches, they can be produced at the rate of about 400 to 600 individual grids per minute.
Handling and processing battery grids and plates at this high speed is extremely difficult due to their relatively large mass, soft and flexible nature, and being loaded with uncured battery paste. Battery grids and plates are soft, flexible and easily damaged because they have an open mesh, are made of soft lead and are relatively thin with a thickness usually in the range of about 0.030 to 0.080 of an inch. Handling and processing of the grid is made more difficult by the soft and sticky nature of the uncured paste. Frequently, to facilitate handling a thin piece of paper is applied over the uncured paste on one or both sides of the grid.